News Details

Clean Trucks Program to Reach Final Milestone

Older rigs fully banned from terminals on Jan. 1

In the New Year, the Port of Long Beach’s landmark Clean Trucks Program will hit its final milestone, permanently barring the oldest, most polluting drayage trucks from Port terminals.

Although the final ban starts January 1, significant reduction in truck related pollution was reached nearly two years ago. Today, 98 percent of trucked container moves at the Port are done by rigs with newer, less polluting engines.

“We set an example for the entire industry,” said Long Beach Harbor Commission President Susan E. Andersen Wise. “We helped replace more than 10,000 pollution spewing trucks with newer, less polluting ones and the bottom line is that our communities can breathe better. Everyone at the Port can be proud of this accomplishment, and we are grateful to all our partners in the trucking industry and the environmental community who helped us get here.”

Under the Clean Trucks Program, Port of Long Beach terminals began barring older rigs on October 1, 2008. The first ban included trucks with 1988 or older engines. On January 1, 2010, the Port banned 1993 and older trucks. Trucks manufactured between 1994 and 2003 were allowed to continue doing business at the Port if they were equipped with exhaust filters that significantly cut their emissions. Neighboring Port of Los Angeles had the same bans under its Clean Truck Program.

January 1, 2012 will mark the last phase of a progressive ban that has succeeded in replacing the entire drayage fleet in the largest port complex in North America. The final ban will take another 280 older container trucks off Port roads, and all 11,000 drayage trucks servicing the Port terminals will be 2007 or newer models. Another 800 older non-container trucks will be purged from the Port’s drayage registry and barred from doing business at the Port.